Wish in One Hand
by Ironbear
Summary: The power of the Wish isn't all it's cracked up to be. It can turn on you in the most unexpected fashion sometimes...


**Wish in One Hand...**

_by Ironbear_

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**Story Blurb:** "After all this time in Sunnydale? And hanging around Buffy Summers and her little clique? If there's one thing I _do_ know by now, it's _weird_."

**Title:** "Wish in One Hand..."

**Author:** Ironbear

**Rating:** FR-18

**Disclaimer:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series and characters thereof belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Kazui Entertainment. Everyone else belongs to their respective owners too, except for my original characters, whom I suppose belong mostly to themselves.

This is a work of derivative fiction. All persons, characters, names, places, locations, entities, personages, and/or deities contained within are purely fictional, or fictional representations thereof, and any resemblance to any real persons, characters, names, places, locations, entities, personages, and/or deities are purely coincidental, or they are used in a purely fictional manner.

**Summary:** The power of the Wish isn't all it's cracked up to be. It can turn on you in the most unexpected fashion sometimes...

**Type:** Drama, Romance, Urban Fantasy

**Chronology:** Season Three: BtVS just post "Lover's Walk"; "The Wish"

**Pairings:** Cordelia Chase/Xander Harris

**Author's Note(s):** Just a quick one shot that popped into my head one day and wouldn't go away until I fed the Plot Bunny. Darn Plot Bunnies. They keep multiplying and distracting me from my longer works with their antics...

This may or may not work its way in one form or another into part of a longer fic one day. For now, it's just a brief vignette. Enjoy.

Life in Sunnydale #2. _Not_ a series, just a collection of unrelated or merely semi-related stories set in the BtVS universe during the pre-_Chosen_ years.

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**Wish In One Hand...**

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With a sigh, Anya reached behind her neck, undoing the clasp to her necklace. "Here," she said, "I think you need this a lot more than I do, right now." Smiling, she reached to put it around Cordelia's neck. "For luck."

Nodding, Cordelia pulled her hair away from her neck so that Anya could put the chain on and do the clasp. "Thanks, I really do," Cordelia said, "_Definitely_ could _use_ some luck. And a stick with sharp pointy bits. If that Buffy wasn't... I swear. She's _such_ a pain."

Her side twinged, where the re-bar had gone through and some of her stitches had pulled out last night, and Cordelia gasped, putting her hand to the wound.

"Ouch," Anya said. "Seems painful. Don't you just wish... "

"Oh, definitely," Cordelia said, eying Buffy with a baleful glare. "There are just so _many_ things I wish right now."

"I'll bet," Anya said. "Like that utter loser, Xander. Don't you wish... "

"Oh, please," Cordelia said, making a negligent gesture with one hand. "I never... " she trailed off as she saw Xander enter the other side of the Quad. Seeing her, he gave a tentative smile, and then ducked his head at her return glare, looking miserable.

Served him right. He _should_ look miserable, dammit. And _be_ miserable.

As miserable as she was.

Tossing her hair, Cordelia smiled at Anya, one hand going to the pendant. "I _so_ never, _ever_ would have even looked at Xander Harris if Buffy hadn't made him at least _marginally_ cooler by by hanging out with him."

"Really?" Anya looked over at Buffy, her gaze following the diminutive blonde as she crossed the Quad to join up with Xander. "I'll bet just seeing him and her together makes your blood boil now," Anya said.

"Oh please," Cordelia gave a harsh laugh, not caring how it pulled at her stitches. "Xander and Buffy together? She doesn't have eyes for anything with a pulse."

"Well, they sure _look_ chummy," Anya said, her gaze speculative upon the pair across the way. "Don't you just wish that Xander would... "

"Oh, yeah, definitely," Cordelia said. "You just can't _imagine_ the things I wish would happen to those two."

"I'll just bet," Anya said, tossing her hair. "_Tell_ me about it."

"Have a year or so to spare?" Cordelia said, and then added, with a fake, brittle laugh, "Not that I'd actually _spend_ that kind of time on those two losers, or anything."

"Of course not," Anya said, scoffing. "Who would? But, just for grins, if you _could_ wish for _anything_ on Xander right now, anything at all, what would it be?"

"Oh, you know. Usual stuff," Cordelia said, slowly, still fingering the pendant. She gasped, wincing and holding her side with her left hand as the wound twinged again, painfully. "Ow," she said, her mind suddenly only partly on the pain, and the injury.

There'd been an odd note of exasperation in Anya's voice at the end of that question. And she really, _seriously_ seemed to be harping on that whole wish theme...

Cordelia looked at the other girl, her eyes narrowing. "Hmm," Cordelia said, "It's really kind of strange that you'd offer a family heirloom to a girl you just met, just to cheer her up."

"Oh, no, not really," Anya said, shaking her head and smiling. "Like I said, you really seem like you could use the luck more than I need it right now."

"Uh huh," Cordelia said, "Strange. Actually, weird, like. And after all this time in Sunnydale? And hanging around Buffy Summers and her little clique?" Cordelia stepped back slightly, her eyes narrowing farther. She tilted her head slightly, studying the other girl, and said, "If there's one thing I _do_ know by now, it's _weird_. Creepy even, now that I really think about it."

"Well," Anya said, glaring at her. "I didn't offer to cheer you up just to get called creepy. I just thought that usually, a girl just can't wait to tell a friendly ear all about her lamer ex."

"Usually," Cordelia said.

"I mean," Anya said, "Seriously. I was just curious about what you'd wish would happen if you could, like, have anything at all."

"Seriously? Anything?" Cordelia gave Anya a measuring look.

"Anything!" Anya smiled brightly, and said, "Just cut loose, girlfriend. What's the worst possible thing you could thing of to wish on that," she looked dismissively over at Xander and Buffy across the Quad, "Lamer cheating ex of yours?'

"You know what I wish?" Cordelia said, watching Anya carefully while doing her best to not seem like she was doing so. "What I really wish?"

"Yes?" Anya leaned forward slightly, a gleam of something that almost looked like anticipation in her eyes.

Cordelia laughed. "You know what?" she said. Cordelia reached behind her neck for the clasp to the pendant, saying, "I have _so_ had just about _enough_ weirdo, lamer creeps in my life to last me for-_ever_. I _wish_ that _you_ would just go far, far _away_ from me, and never _ever_ come back."

Anya's sudden glare could melt metal. Cordelia took an involuntary step back, her fingers fumbling the clasp.

"Dammit," Anya said, her face suddenly becoming wrinkled, veiny, and extremely raw looking. "_Done!_" She practically snarled out the word, vanishing in a sudden, bright flash.

"I _so_ have to get the hell _out_ of this town," Cordelia said, sighing. She pulled her hands away from the back of her neck, ceasing to work at the clasp. "And gee, she left her heirloom. I'm _so_ very sorry about that," Cordelia said. "Not."

She stared at the place where the demon girl had been for a long time, one hand unconsciously going to her side and rubbing at it. After a time, she looked over to where Harmony was giggling with the former Cordettes, and pretending not to glance in Cordelia's direction.

Then she looked over at Buffy and Xander standing and talking, across the way.

After a long moment, Cordelia's chin came up and her eyes narrowed. "I _wish_, my tight, toned ass," she said. "I'm Cordelia _Chase_. I don't wish. I _do_." Realizing suddenly what she was doing, she took her hand away from her side and straightened.

Turning away from the giggling huddle of former Cordettes, she stalked suddenly across the Quad – straight toward Summers and Harris. All around the Quad, heads began to turn, tracking her as people noticed where she seemed to be headed.

Cordelia ignored them.

A low mutter of conversation and speculation rose, and people elbowed the person next to them as it became clear exactly where she was going.

Cordelia ignored those also.

Buffy saw her coming as she neared them, and, upon meeting Cordelia's eyes, her own widened.

Cordelia ignored her as well.

"So," Cordelia said, coming to a halt directly in front of Xander. "You have something to say to me?"

"Huh? Uh... " Xander said, his gaze suddenly everywhere but directly to hers. "I- I... "

"_Look_ at me when you stammer in my direction, _dork_," Cordelia said. Her tone brought Xander's eyes to hers with a snap, and she folded her arms across her chest, tapping one foot impatiently. "You left hours and _hours_ of messages on my machine, saying you wanted to _talk_. So, start talking."

Xander gaped at her for a moment, and then nodded jerkily. His mouth started to open, and Cordelia held a hand up, stopping him.

"But get this straight, _Jerk_," Cordelia said, "This is for all the marbles. Every. Single. _Word_. Counts. Here. Make the most of them while you have them. Clue: start with desperate groveling and work your way up from there."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Buffy do her level best to hide a smile as Xander took a deep breath, held it a moment, let it out, and then started talking, sincerely and earnestly his eyes never leaving Cordelia's. Buffy carefully backed away from the pair of them, and turned to walk back into the school.

"Buffy," Cordelia's voice stopped her before she was completely away. Buffy turned, giving her an inquiring look. "Tell Giles I need to talk to him later, if you would."

Buffy's sudden grin was almost blinding. "I will. You bet."

"And tell Willow that she and I are going to have a short sharp chat also," Cordelia added, her gaze never leaving Xander's eyes.

Buffy's smile slid away like it was on rails, and she swallowed hard. "I will," she said, after a moment.

Cordelia nodded to her, and turned her attention back to Xander.

"Well? Did someone say you were finished?" Cordelia tapped her foot again, fixing him with a baleful look. "I'm waiting."

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_**~ FINIS ~**_


End file.
